I AM NOT A SAINT SAY ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER

I'm no saint!... Berlusconi (centre) with Obama (left) and Russian premier Medevedev on the right. - Reuters pic

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, dogged by accusations of cavorting with teenagers and high-end prostitutes, said today he was “no saint” and vowed to govern until the end of his mandate.

• In his first public remarks since newspapers posted audio tapes of conversations supposedly between him and an escort, a defiant Berlusconi sought to dismiss the scandal with one of his trademark quips.
  “I am not a saint, you’ve all understood that. I hope those at La Repubblica also understand it,” he said, referring to the left-leaning daily which has led demands that he clear up aspects of his personal life.
  The websites of La Repubblica and weekly magazine L’Espresso have posted recordings of conversations they said were between Berlusconi and Patrizia D’Addario, an escort who says she and other women were paid to attend parties at Berlusconi’s residence in Rome.
  The 72-year old conservative prime minister, who often boasts of his sexual prowess, has not denied that D’Addario went to his home, but has said that he did not know she was an escort and that he has never paid for sex.
  D’Addario, 42, says she made the recordings during a night she spent with the prime minister on Nov. 4, 2008. the date of US President Barack Obama’s historic election victory and during various telephone conversations.
  She has handed the tapes to magistrates investigating a businessman, Giampaolo Tarantini, on suspicion of providing paid escorts to curry political favours for an enterprise in the southern city of Bari, from where D’Addario also hails.
  

Source: Reuters